The 2024 edition of Bosch Motorsport Yokohama World Time Attack Challenge at Sydney Motorsport Park once again showed why it is one of the world’s best celebrations of car culture.
Although the event is arguably best-known for attracting some of the hottest track machines from Australia and the world in pursuit of that ‘one perfect Lap’, WTAC also provides a wide range of racing formats and off-track activities that cater for all tastes.
From Time Trials to Drag Racing, Drift Demonstrations to the Hot Wheels Stunt Team, there is no shortage of excitement that keeps spectators coming from around the nation to attend.
Since the event’s inception in 2008, it has grown from strength-to-strength, with organisers expecting around 40,0000 attendees over the three-days for the 2024 meeting.
Shannons continued its partnership with the fledgling annual festival, with naming rights of the Stylized Show ‘n’ Shine, along with a dedicated pop-up stand on the skidpan to assist customers in-person, the time-honoured community presence Shannons is famous for.
Emtron Pro Class
The Porsche RP968 driven by Barton Mawer was predicted by many to be the odds-on favourite heading into the event.
Having claimed the outright lap record of the Gardner GP configuration of SMP in 2023 with a time of 1m 17.860, Mawer and his team knew they had further pace to unlock.
Mawer set a new outright lap benchmark on both Friday and Saturday, however the fastest of his laps came during the Supercheap Auto Superlap Shootout on Saturday evening, cool conditions assisting him to set a blistering time of 1m 17.444.
The result netted Mawer his fifth victory in a row.
Rodin recently re-introduced its famous Sintura V10-powered sports car and was using the event as a testbed for future appearances.
With Hyundai TCR star Josh Buchan behind the wheel, the Sintura stopped the clock with a 1m 27.010 – a promising sign of the striking Rodin’s performance to come.
Plazmaman Pro-Am Class
The famed 1:1 Audi R8, commonly referred to as ‘Fat Cat’, proved all too strong in the Pro-Am Class, with Sami Sivonen’s fastest lap of 1m 24.832 putting him 0.6-seconds clear of his nearest rival, Feras Qartoumy from the United States.
Qartoumy’s preparation for the weekend was less than ideal, with his team facing a mammoth effort to execute a complete rebuild of the Corvette’s engine on Wednesday night, a day prior to the event kicking off.
Despite the setback, the popular Corvette capped off the weekend second in class.
The third quickest time in class was Rob Nguyen behind the wheel of the Mighty Mouse Honda CRX, back at WTAC 2024 after multiple years on the sidelines.
GCG Open Class
After a closely fought battle throughout the weekend, Rob Nguyen emerged victorious in class with a time of 1m 25.543 in the Shootout, driving his Dream Project Nissan S15 Silvia.
Supercars racing star, Tim Slade, was building towards a flying lap to counter the time of Nguyen, however, Slade ran wide on the back section of the circuit, forcing him to abandon his attempt and cemented Nguyen’s place at the top of the sheets.
Benny Tran’s BYP Honda Integra was a podium contender for much of the weekend, however an expired engine on Friday forced him and the team to react and get the Integra back for Saturday’s action.
Thankfully, Tran was able to get out for the Shootout, banking a time of 1m 28.503 to edge out John Boston.
Haltech Clubsprint Class
Giti Tyres Australian Formula Open regular, Trent Grubel, was the man in control of the Clubsprint class, guiding his Subaru STI to a time of 1m 32.234 in the session prior to the Shootout, Saturday morning.
Alex Michalsky drove his Mitsubishi Evo VI on the limit to cross the line with a time of 1m 32.276, a meagre margin of 0.05s adrift of Grubel in P1.
Mike Garland was on track to secure third in his Subaru STI GC8, but he fenced the #53 entry during the Shootout.
Adam Casmiri, Ryan Marshall and Jimmy Asaad rounded out the top five.
If you want to revisit all the action from WTAC 2024, you can tune into the event live stream via the World Time Attack YouTube channel.
